Throughout the season, IU Coach Kevin Wilson has said something he’s learned through his years in Bloomington that applies to this season as well as any other.
The Hoosiers don’t handle success well.
“You’re always pressing to have your best week, but you don’t want to squeeze too tight,” Wilson said. “Our deal is we haven’t handled success good, and so you’ve got a couple wins, and we didn’t even play well the other day.”
The “other day” was Saturday against Rutgers, and “didn’t even play well” is directed toward the four turnovers and five missed kicks IU recorded in the 33-27 victory.
Those are aspects of the game Wilson is looking to improve as he and IU welcome No. 10 Penn State on Saturday in the midst of a two-game win streak.
Those two wins haven’t been pretty, though.
Against Maryland, the IU defense faltered and surrendered 269 yards on the ground on the way to 36 total points allowed. Just enough scratch-and-claw plays, as junior linebacker Tegray Scales referred to them, maintained the Hoosiers’ lead against the Terrapins.
At Rutgers, the defense forced 11 three-and-outs, but the offense turned the ball over four times, and the kicking game left 11 points on the field in the form of three missed field goals and two failed extra-point attempts.
Regardless of the game, some part of the team was shaky, and now Wilson and offensive coordinator Kevin Johns said the Hoosiers need to play their best to defeat a Nittany Lions team that’s been playing as well as anyone in the country.
“They’re playing with an extreme amount of confidence,” Johns said. “You can tell that they’re well-coached. They don’t give up a lot of big plays. There aren’t a lot of mistakes.”
Penn State’s season looked grim after the loss to Pittsburgh early in the season, but since losing to Michigan 49-10, the Nittany Lions have won five consecutive games to push their record to 7-2. The win streak includes an upset victory at home against Ohio State.
In those five games, Penn State has defeated its opponents by an average of 19 points. Aside from IU’s 21-point victory against Florida International, its largest margin of victory this season is 10 points — against Ball State.
The Hoosiers don’t want to repeat last year’s scenario, when they earned bowl eligibility in the last game of the season.
However, 2016 is much like the 2015 season, in which IU started 4-0 for the first time since 1990 and pushed top-ranked teams to the brink only to lose six consecutive games and have to beat Purdue in West Lafayette, Indiana, to earn a spot in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl.
Even in the bowl, IU didn’t respond to success well and lost in overtime against the Duke Blue Devils in the Hoosiers’ first bowl game since 2007.
This year, after showing the second-best defensive improvement in the country, IU’s offense has struggled. After beating Michigan State, IU didn’t record more than 100 rushing yards for three weeks and must now face two top-ranked teams and Purdue to try to earn the sixth win.
Wins that looked promising at the beginning of the season turned into losses, and now a Penn State team that looked weak in week two is as strong as ever and traveling to Bloomington with a possible Heisman candidate in running back Saquon Barkley.
“It’s going to take our best effort,” Wilson said. “It’s going to take our best week.”
